Who would have thought a school fundraiser at Chick-fil-A could be so dangerous right?
So that's where we were...at Chick-fil-A. The owner (who is also a parent to a K-3 student at Jake's preschool) of one of the restaurants here in town dedicated part (or maybe all...I really didn't get that far) of the proceeds from last Thursday night's sales to Jake's school - which means when we all got hungry around 5 o'clock, those of us in our family who can actually (a) vote on where to eat and (b) eat real food, decided why not (a) eat somewhere we love to anyway and (b) help support the great school we are so blessed to have Jake attend every weekday.
Jim was still at work when we came up with a game plan for the night, so we decided we would just meet there. We pulled into the parking lot that was actually next door because it was seriously so crowded. No one was "Driving Thru" anywhere, and there was no way I was parking in one of the few spots that they have at the actual restaurant for fear of not being able to get out again when it was go time.
We got there within minutes of each other, and I sat down at one of tables outside (since those were the only kind available because this is not your typical "sit down" Chick-fil-A - Nope. This one is Drive-Thru and outdoor dining room only.). Jim and I went our separate ways - he ordered who knows how many chicken nuggets at the window while I fed a hungry Parker and warned Jake about cars and told him no he couldn't have the balloons that were tied to the railing that surrounds the eating area at least five times.
Jim brought our food...and Jake...to the table. We ate our dinner peacefully...thank God...then it was right back up from the table for Jake to see if the birds wanted any waffle fries...the birds who were given a concrete birdbath to wash themselves in with no water in it that was sitting at the edge of where the eating area ended and the bush beds began. Jim and I sat talking about the wedding we were planning on going to on Saturday night, what to pack for the beach, and whether or not we wanted to run by the mall before we went back home.
We sat until we heard Jake fall into the mulch and saw him lying there with the top of the concrete birdbath on top of his face. We honestly have no idea how it happened. We have no idea how he got to the point from playing within five feet of where we had just eaten dinner to lying in mulch, his face completely underneath a huge piece of concrete.
Jim jumped up from the table before I could even think (or put Parker in his pumpkin seat to free my hands), and knelt beside Jake. He lifted the top of the birdbath off of his face and picked him up. He yelled for napkins and tried to stop the bleeding as best he could. He organized our route to the emergency room and answered the, "What can we do to help?" questions that were coming from every single person around us.
And what did I do? I freaked out enough for everyone who wasn't or was trying not to. I put Parker in his car seat and almost dropped him in the process, I looked at Jim and looked at Jake and begged for help. I gathered everything we had on the table we were eating at and let our Principal's wife help us to our vehicle (because no, I could not drive and neither could Jim because he was holding the front and back of Jake's head to try to stop the bleeding that was coming from both places).
We went straight to the Emergency Room, and it was all downhill from there. The bleeding was stopped, I panicked less and less, Jake's head was x-rayed to make sure nothing was broken, friends came and took Parker, and the half inch gash right in the middle of Jake's right eye was stitched from the inside out.
Six hours from where we started on Thursday night (leaving our house to go eat dinner, maybe do a little shopping at the mall), lots of prayers, lots more tears, lots of help from people we didn't even know and some we did, and until the next morning, this is what we ended up with.
Since then we've wondered what we could have or should have done differently and how in the world this happened in the first place. We've asked Jake over and over what he was doing, and thanked God that his injuries weren't more serious.
Most importantly, he's okay and we're okay. And even though Jim says with two boys, it won't be our last trip to the Emergency Room, I'm still holding out hope that it will be...at least for a few more years (or decades would be good too) anyway.
